GREENBURGH, N.Y.—A charter flight from New York to Boston includes barely enough time to finish a glass of ginger ale, so for the New York Rangers, who opened the season with a short jaunt to New England, then played exclusively at home or in nearby Philadelphia for the rest of January, playing the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night in Florida represented the first chance to really get a feel for the road.

The Blueshirts are not about to complain about having one of the NHL’s least difficult travel scenarios, but there is a team-building aspect to longer trips that no season is complete without. Finally, New York has it.

“The plane? It’s great,” said Jeff Halpern, the 36-year-old forward who signed with the Rangers last summer. “It’s a good card game. We had a couple of easy cash giveaways last year (with the Washington Capitals) so I’m trying to figure out who the weaker card players are right now. We’ve only had the Boston and the Tampa trip. There are a couple of good ones and a couple who I’m going to give my kids some gifts with.”

All joking about card games aside, NHL teams are starting to figure themselves out after two weeks of hockey which felt like preseason games that counted in the standings. There are no undefeated teams left, there are no winless teams left, and every team except the Calgary Flames has used both of its goaltenders.

While there are some teams that have put themselves in an advantageous position, such as the Chicago Blackhawks at 7-0-2, the San Jose Sharks at 7-0-1, and the Boston Bruins at 6-1-1, nobody has dug themselves an inescapable hole the way that the Columbus Blue Jackets did last season by losing their first eight games. The Flames have the fewest points in the NHL with a 1-3-2 record for four points, but are only five points out of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, with two games in hand on the four teams sitting on nine points. In the East, the Washington Capitals’ 2-6-1 start leaves the perennial Southeast Division powerhouse only three points adrift of the Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Aside from propping up the standings in their respective conferences, the Flames and Capitals have something else in common: new coaches. While the other teams in the league with new bosses, the Edmonton Oilers (4-3-1) and Montreal Canadiens (6-2-0), have gotten off to fine starts, it is understandable that teams running new systems might struggle to adapt. The key thing to remember is that while they are cellar-dwellers now, Calgary and Washington still have time to put things together.

“I’ve watched a bit of (the Capitals’) games, and it’s definitely gotten better and better every game,” Halpern said of his old club. “It takes time to figure out where you’re supposed to go on the ice and have it come naturally as opposed to thinking about it all the time. I don’t know specifically how things are going, but whenever a new coach comes in, there’s a bit of a learning curve.”

That can be just as true for players on relatively stable teams as it is for those who made sweeping offseason changes. Team chemistry is not something that is easily measured, but it is clear that some clubs have needed more time than others to get things to click. The Rangers, who last season had a middle-of-the-pack offense, then added Rick Nash in a summer trade, have started the season scoring 2.38 goals per game, the fewest in the Eastern Conference.

“I think it takes an adjustment,” Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said. “We’ve got four new guys up front that are on all the lines. The new guys, with the system, it takes time for it to become reaction rather than thinking about it. I think we’re starting to react more now rather than watching and thinking a little too much. That’s the way we’ve got to play. (With a regular preseason) you’ve got a month building up, time to work on your forecheck and your d-zone. This time we had five days, and it’s just trying to learn as you go. It’s a big difference.”

The Rangers will have to integrate more new forwards to their system after acquiring Darroll Powe and Nick Palmieri from the Minnesota Wild in a trade for Mike Rupp on Monday. But that is something that has to happen anytime there is a trade. For the general sports fans who only start paying attention to hockey once the Super Bowl is over, that as much as anything else is a sign that it is back to business as usual in the NHL.